Happy Birthday to a girl who's reached her Lucky Year!

This one's for Fned - she's the first-born of her sibs and she's finally turned the age of her birthdate, so this is her lucky year! When you consider the road she's traveled so far, the possibilities - in terms of luck - reach epic proportions!

In tribute to my daughter, I'd like to take a walk through my field of Fned memories because the truth is, since she's so far away, whenever I think of her, I see her in my mind's eye as a series of superimposed images - from the young woman Fned all the way back to the new-born baby who fit head-to-toe into her Dad's hand and forearm (gotta find my picture of that!).

From the beginning, she got a chance to see the world: like the time we went walking with her to the UNAM when she was 4 days old because we wanted to take my sister who had come to visit us and who was deep in the throes of early pregnancy nausea; or my experiments with the rebozo when she was still very tiny, taking her on the metro and being severely admonished by the woman sitting next to me who, when I unwrapped the poor thing because the wagon was quite stuffy, told me I should never let my baby's face be seen by strangers because someone would give her the evil eye...

I remember the feel of her weight lying against my chest and stomach as I walked everywhere with her in the "kanguru" my sister-in-law gave me after her son outgrew it. Wherever we went, people would smile at us and want to get a better look at those extraordinary blue eyes that sparkled and danced as she moved her head about checking out her surroundings.

Oh yes, and the rocking chair... How can I ever forget my mother's amazed burst of laughter when she observed her granddaughter rocking in her chair, making it move with every vigorous push of her little foot against the floor, until she had rocked her way accross the kitchen floor... and 'singing' all the way! (I had taken 6-month-old Fned on a trip to my other sister's wedding and we were staying at my parent's house).

Millions of these kinds of memories crowd through my mind, so I move to the ones of Fned tying her shoes at age 2! What child does that? And I was witness to the fact! How I remember sitting nearby waiting for that final loop to come through the hole and the bow to be made! She had tried for days and it was sheer torture to sit by and watch, but the day she did it WOW!!!

We won't go into the memories of 'The Thumb' except to acknowledge that yes, Fned was a passionate thumbsucker who did not take kindly to the idea of giving up the nasty habit! No Barbie doll could bribe that kid (I tried that tactic because it worked for my mom on me!)

But what about her artwork, all those lovely lovely pictures she drew before and all through her first school years.

Then there was the year we went to live in the States and I hit all the thrift stores with my kids (there were 3 by then). Fned always picked out the most incredible dresses and when a dress costs 50 cents or a dollar (she was about 10 by then), you can afford to buy 3 or 4 or more at a time! Then, how she would change her clothes 5 times a day and dance around the house to songs like 'Tamlin' sung by Sandy Denny from my Fairport Convention album.

I see Fned during her obsession with Barbie and all those different houses we lived in where she and her new friends (she always had friends in the hood and she was always the leader of the pack no matter what the ages were), would set out all their Barbies and accessories on the porch and dress and redress them for hours.

The years pass and I see her in Valladolid in the secondary school, where she began to branch out and become a real "teenager" who wanted to use make-up and polish her nails, and started to style her hair... the move back to Puebla and her continuing fascination with clothes and hair... her tremendous consternation at having to share a room with her 3-yr.-old sister (she was 14 going on 18 by then). Oh the high school years of going out "en bola" and convincing me she "had to" be allowed to come in at 4 a.m. when they went out dancing because that way, they could all share a taxi coming home and if she left earlier, she would have to go home alone... (she really knew how to argue her point by that time - I remember the first time one of her friends asked her to convince her parents to let her go out - and she did! After that, it became a common practice, to the point that some of the parents considered her their daughter's chaperone, while other parents rejected her attempts at all costs.)

Oh the France thing!!! How she knew by the time she was 15 that she was going to France somehow some way... so she looked for a High School that offered French as a pre-major... and from then on, that's what she was working towards. When she needed a scholarship, she went out and applied for it and all I had to do was sign the papers! When the opportunity at last came, she was ready for it!

I've skipped over so many key points, but I want to post this blog before the day is over, so I'll just add some key Fned phrases:
When the big earthquake of '85 hit, we were in the kitchen having breakfast. Car and I felt the tremors, looked at each other over Fned's head and said simultaneously: "it's an earthquake!" Fned (she was just turning 6) put down her fork and weighed the situation, observing our faces for a moment. Then she shook her head with a conspiratorial smile and said, "No it's not, you guys are moving the floor!"

One day out of the blue and then at regular intervals: "Mom, why can't I be an only child???" or a variation, "Why didn't you just have me?"

And when she came home from school early and saw the little pregnancy test tube and stand set up on the table (she was 14 and I was pregnant for the 5th time): "MAMÁ!!! NO WAY!"

Fned has been champion little mother since the time she was 6 and babysat for the first time, kitchen helper, bossy older sister, defender of kids' rights before autocratic adults, avid reader, lover of music and dance, school activist, event organizer,... her talents and accomplishments go on and on.

I guess what I'm trying to say, Fned, is that I am so grateful that I got to have you enter my life and enrich it so much these last 29 years. May I continue to be so blessed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!